My ambition is to have the healthiest children in the world

Nelson Mandela said: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

But after many years of progress, health outcomes for babies and young children in the UK are stalling. We are lagging behind most other high-income countries on mortality, breastfeeding and obesity rates.

And there is a direct correlation between children’s relative poorer health outcomes and the material circumstances in which they grow up.